According to the latest chatter emanating from the major notebook players, AMD is planning to finally launch its Congo platform for ultra-thin notebooks by the end of the month, or beginning of November at the latest. AMD had originally intended to go forward with Congo in July, but ended up postponing the launch citing lower than expected demand for ultra-thins.

The chip maker has yet to announce the platform, but rest assured, it's coming. HP, for example, launched a 12.1 inch ultra-think notebook in Taiwan built around the Athlon Neo MV-40 processor, the same one that will be used in Congo, but with a different chipset.

The sources also added that AMD will launch a couple more ultra-thin platforms over the next two years: Nile and Brazos.

Remember when notebooks were simple portable PCs? That's not the case anymore, and today's units boast all kinds of tricks, whether it's multitouch capabilities, or unveling the "world's first" 3D laptop, as Acer has done with its Aspire 5738PG.

Acer unveiled the 3D-capable laptop during a press conference on Tuesday. The lappy uses a combination of in-house software, a special screen coating, and polarized glasses to achieve the 3D effect.

"The display has been coated with a special 3D film that clings to the panel pixel by pixel, enabling the LCD technology to deliver a 3D visual feast," Acer stated. "Slip on the cool polarized eyeglasses that filter the images and you're ready to dive into an extraordinary 3D adventure."

According to Acer, its TriDef 3D Experience software makes it possible to view all of your 2D videos and photos in 3D. Moreover, it comes with a tool that enables 2D to 3D conversion for games and apps supporting DirectX 9 or above, the company said.

Further up the pricing ladder is Toshiba's Satellite A500 series, which will sport a 16-inch HD screen. Underneath the hood, users will have a choice between an Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Turion II Ultra foundation. Pricing starts at $590.

Towards the top sits the Satellite P500 series. These laptops will come with an 18.4-inch HD screen and also give users a choice between an Intel or AMD processor. Some models will also include a Blu-ray player and illuminating LED backlit keyboard.

And then there's the Qosmio X500 desktop replacement laptop, which will be available in two configurations. One will come with an 18.4-inch HD screen, 320GB hard drive spinning at 7200RPM, and 4GB of memory, while the other will boast two hard drives and a 64GB SSD, along with 6GB of memory. Pricing will start at $1,450 and $1,900 respectively.

Toshiba has plenty of other models on tap for an October 22nd launch, and so will everyone else. Stay tuned!

Acer, the world's third largest PC maker, unveiled its Aspire 578PG notebook., the company's first laptop with a multitouch capacitive screen. Unlike competing models from HP or Lenovo, Acer didn't integrate touch optimized software of its own to run on top of Windows 7, but users will still be able to pinch, zoom, two-finger scroll, and perform other standard multitouch gestures.

Over the weekend, Acer issued a voluntary safety recall for several of its Aspire notebooks, noting that a misplaced cable could pose an overheating hazard. But not to worry, say Taiwan notebook makers, who insist the recall is not indicative of a production issue.

Instead, the sources note the issue is most likely due to a defective assembly process and has nothing to do with the overall design of the affected models. Even though the high-density cable used in ultra-thin notebooks are more than capable of overheating the units, notebook makers say that current cooling technologies are more than up to the task.

This isn't the first time in recent memory Acer had to issue a recall because of an overheating hazard. Back in March of this year, Acer said it had received two reports of its Predator desktop PCs short circuiting, resulting in melted internal components and external casing. Acer determined that the problem would occur when insulation on the internal wiring would become bent or stripped.

The busy bodies at HP kicked off this week with a series of product launches, including several multi-touch capable laptops that work with Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 OS.

"We introduced our first touchscreens in 1983 and now we're on our third generation of TouchSmart models," said John Cook, vice president of desktop marketing in HP's Personal Systems Group. "Touch may very well be the best way to interact with a computer."

That last statement will be up to consumers to decide, and to help them do that, HP's TouchSmart tx2 laptop ($799) allows consumers to use two fingers to navigate through the touchscreen interfaces. Like HP's TouchSmart desktops, the tx2 comes with the abiltiy to pinch, rotate, flip, press, or drag a finger across the screen. And the 12.1-inch screen can be rotated 180 degrees for use as a tablet.

HP paid attention to the desktop market as well, releasing its third generation of touch-enabled desktop PCs. Both the all-in-one TouchSmart 300 and 600 sport widescreen displays sized 20 inches and 23 inches, respectively. Both also come with built-in touch apps, including Hulu Desktop, Netflix, Pandora, Twitter, and the HP Music Store by Rhapsody.

Four C-notes is about the going rate for 10.1-inch netbooks with a single-core Atom N280 processor and 1GB of RAM. That doesn't sound like much, but that's because you're paying a premium for portability. If you have trouble wrapping your head around that, then HP's new Compaq-branded CQ61 may be more your style.

For the same price as a high-end netbook, the Compaq CQ61 nets you a 15.6-inch dispay powered by a dual-core AMD Sempron M100 processor (2GHz, 512KB L2 cache). Other specs include 2GB or RAM, ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics, a 160GB hard drive, a DVD burner, Windows 7 Home Premium, and a 6-cell battery.

HP didn't mention what kind of battery life you can expect from the CQ61 and we'd guess it to be nothing to write home about. But still, if you're not sold on the whole netbook thing, the CQ61 looks pretty serviceable at its price point.

Last week the Internet served up the first glimpse of Dell's insanely thin Adamo XPS laptop, and playing in to the hype machine the OEM today followed suit with a couple of additional teaser photos.

"Because so many people have had a sneak peek at Dell's super thin Adamo XPS laptop and seem to be falling in love with it, the company today released two more photos of the highly stylized, thin 9.99-mm Adamo by Dell system. The Adamo is as intriguing open as it is closed," the OEM stated in a press release.

These will have to tide you over until Dell coughs up more details, such as price, release date, or even a spec sheet, none of which are yet known.

"Stay tuned for more information on this head-turning product," the OEM added, as if we had any other choice.

One thing's for sure - no one can accuse BFG of jumping into the gaming notebook market half-assed. On the contrary, BFG, best known for it's lineup of GPUs, today announced the Deimos X-10 SLI gaming laptop that looks as sexy as its spec sheet.

"The Deimos X-10 SLI notebook is perfect for gamers and media enthusiasts who demand desktop performance but prefer the portability of a notebook," said John Malley, senior director of marketing for BFG Technologies. "Deimos X-10 comes fully locked and loaded to deliver the ultimate HD mobile gaming and multimedia experience."

The Deimos X-10 sports a spacious 18.4-inch full HD widescreen display, and underneath the hood, users can choose between an Intel Core 2 Duo, Quad, or Extreme processor. Up to two NVidia GTX 280M graphics cards come configurable to get your mobile SLI groove on. Other specs include an optional Blu-ray drive, full size keyboard with 8 touch sensor instant keys, up to 1.5TB of storage space (SSD or HDD), up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, 8 macro gaming keys, 2MP webcam, HDMI output, four USB ports, and more.

BFG says its new notebook will start shipping on October 30, but those who preorder before then will receive 10 percent off their order. Pricing starts at $1,860.

Know why your next notebook might sport two displays? Because the concept is pretty rad, for one. But the real reason is because it appears manufacturers are starting to jump on the double-screen bandwagon that hasn't even left the corral just yet.

It started back in January of this year when Lenovo released its dual-screen W700ds, and then more recently Alaska-based gScreen promised to release a dual 15.4-inch screen laptop dubbed the Spacebook in time for the holidays. The latest to enter the double-wide fray is Japan-based PC maker Kohjinsha, who's been showing off a laptop with two widescreen LCDs.

Both screens measure 10.1 inches with one of them sliding out from behind the other so users can still close the unit like a typical notebook. Other hardware includes an AMD Athlon Neo-MV40 processor (1.6GHz), 4GB of memory, Bluetooth, a TV tuner, a biometric fingerprint reader, and Windows 7 Home Premium.

According to Cnet, the unit weighs about 4 pounds. What isn't known is how much it will cost or when and where it will be available.